The History of Q-Con
Welcome to Q-CON!
Q-Con is an annual gaming, anime and cosplay convention in Belfast, drawing fans from all over the world to our HQ at Queen’s University Belfast. Organised by the Queen's University Gaming Society, it has become a pillar of the local geek culture scene, with a wide range of activities and events every year for attendees of all ages and interests.
We are volunteer-run, meaning that everyone from the organisers to the on-the-floor staff are all enthusiasts just like you. We don’t run this for money, Q-Con exists because it’s the convention that we would want to attend!
Each year we also attract vendors and exhibitors who sell a variety of merchandise, artwork and plenty of other goods related to your favourite games and anime.
We pride ourselves on creating a friendly and inclusive atmosphere where everyone is welcome and can make new friends. We hope to see you there this year!
Our History
Q-Con (short for Queen’s Convention) is an annual gaming and anime convention, hosted by the Dragonslayers Gaming & Anime Society at Queen’s University, Belfast.
Influenced by the wider convention scene in Ireland at the time, and across the ocean in the USA (E.g. Gen Con, Comic Con, etc.), Alan Neil and Matt Johnson decided to host a games convention in their university - It was the first ever fully-fledged games convention in Northern Ireland. They promoted the event by visiting other universities such as St Andrews and University College Cork, as well as using over a hundred Usenet groups - the early Internet’s “Social Media”.
Our debut year was held at the QUB Students Union across the Snack Bar, Conference Room, Mandela Hall and Reading Room from the 17th to 19th June 1993. It had an attendance of 150 people over the three days. Role-playing games, including Advanced Dungeons and Dragons, Call of Cthulhu and Vampire the Masquerade took place. Wargames such as Command Decision by GDW as well as D.B.M were enjoyed. Live Action Roleplay Games like Paranoia took place and board games like Risk were played as well. Traders from the Dungeon (aka the Modellers’ Nook) of Smithfield beside Castle Court set up shop at Q-Con, selling assorted war game and RPG goods. Magic the Gathering became a standard tournament after all stock sold out at this first convention. It has since become a staple gaming event each year.
Over time the convention moved over to the Senior Common Room above the Ulster Bank on University Road and remained there for several years. Eventually consoles and PCs entered the fray with games like Doom and Command and Conquer/Red Alert/Starcraft, including consoles such as the Playstation, Xbox and Dreamcast, with linked play and PC LAN gaming.
After the Senior Common Room was removed, Q-Con 11 saw the event return once more to the QUB Students' Union. Cosplay and Anime joined the growing plethora of activities. Q-Con 12 saw over 400 delegates attend the Whitla Hall during the summer and from that point onwards attendance grew explosively. The Elmwood Hall became host to roleplay games and LARPS. Movies in the QFT took off and Ghost in the Shell was screened to an audience of over 200 people.
Consoles became ever more sophisticated and popular. Street Fighter 2 ranbats (ranking battles) tournaments took place. Also on offer were new and unique games like Johan Sebastian Joust, using Playstation Move controllers. This took place outside the Elmwood Hall before a bemused, onlooking public. There was also a tribute live-action game, in honour of the popular 90’s kids TV show Knightmare, with its own version of the green screen dungeon puzzle death trap.
From a starting attendance of 150, Q-Con grew to host over 10,000 attendees. It now enjoys the position of being one of the largest conventions for tabletop, electronic gaming and cosplay in the whole of Ireland. The convention has been supported by other university organizations, from UCC Cork, UMIST Manchester, Trinity College Dublin to University of Ulster. They have organised visits, participated and helped to run additional events over the years. Also each year visitors have come from abroad, some as far as Japan and the USA to pay Q-Con a visit and have some gaming, geeking out with fellow enthusiasts.
In its current form Q-Con utilises much of the QUB campus to operate. For over 30 years Q-Con has been a passionate, leading convention on the island of Ireland, and intends to keep on delivering exciting gaming and pop-culture fun.
